Huhai City, Heavenly River Public Cemetery.
Tong Guan sat on the stone steps, holding the soundly sleeping Chang Nian in his arms as he gazed at the distant sky.
His back was to two pristine white gravestones, yet he often felt an emptiness inside, because these graves, too, held only clothing and personal effects.
It was already 10:10 on January 3. He had been trapped in the cemetery for half a day, and by his reckoning, even the Commission Mission had ended.
He was not worried about how Ji Li's mission had gone. Even if he did not go, Fang Shenyan probably would. With those two there, things were unlikely to go wrong.
Beneath the clear moonlit sky, Tong Guan lowered his head to look at Chang Nian, who slept with her arms wrapped around his waist, utterly dependent on him. His mind, however, was on other things.
Ever since Ji Li had shown him that photograph during the Kyoto mission, relations between them had eased somewhat, and they had remained on peaceful terms.
Over the course of their missions, both he and Chang Nian had occasionally worked brilliantly with Ji Li.
But avoiding certain matters did not mean they ceased to exist.
Eighteen years ago, Ji Li had broken into his home with three Black Robed Figures and forcibly taken his parents away. That was a fact.
Even if he truly approached things rationally, forming a temporary alliance with Ji Li to uncover whatever secrets lay behind it, that incident still stuck in his throat like a bone.
After all, to this day, neither he nor Ji Li had uncovered a single clue about what had happened eighteen years ago, or fifty years ago.
Tong Guan would not do anything foolish. Ji Li was Ji Li. He had many